How to find an FRTOL examiner

The practical test has to be run by someone the CAA recognises. There is no national booking system, so finding one is a phone call rather than a form, and the shortest route is usually the school you already fly with.

Start with your own school

The CAA’s guidance for candidates (CAP 2325, paragraph 3.8) says booking the practical is your responsibility, but that your training organisation should be able to assist. A flying school that teaches the ground exam will often either have someone who can run the practical or know who does locally.

Ask early rather than at the end: an examiner’s availability can hold up a licence as surely as the test itself.

The CAA’s own lists

If your school cannot help, the authority publishes its approved examiner lists directly. That is the source to work from, because it is the one that is kept current.

UK CAA approved examiner lists →

Check the list covers the right thing before you ring round. The CAA publishes several, and examiner approvals are specific. CAP 2325 (paragraph 3.8) names the radiotelephony examiner list, CAP 1585e, as the one to use.

What to ask before you book

Four questions that prevent almost every wasted journey.

Are you able to run the FRTOL practical?: Being an examiner for something else does not make someone an examiner for this. Ask specifically.
Who signs my SRG1171?: Section 4 is signed by whoever was responsible for your radio training, and that may not be the person running the test. Who can sign it.
What do I need to bring?: Identification, your written exam result and the part-completed form are the usual answer, but confirm it with them rather than assuming.
What does it cost, and what happens if I fail?: Worth knowing the retest arrangement before you sit it, not after.

Our directory

We keep a directory too, and it is honest about being empty.

Nobody is listed yet, so it would be no use to you today and we are not going to pad it out with names we have not verified. Use the CAA lists above. If you are an examiner and want to be found here, get in touch.

Before the day

The test is a simulated flight run entirely on the radio, and the readbacks are where an examiner is listening hardest.

What happens in the FRTOL practical →

Practise this at your airfield

Reading it is the easy half. Pick your own airfield, with its real frequencies and today’s weather, and say these calls out loud until they stop being something you remember and start being something you do.

Find your airfield →

Written from the same vetted study data the app uses, and checked against it on 9 October 2026. TowerTalk is a training aid: your instructor and your examiner are the authority on whether you are ready.